Game Based Movies
Summary Hello again. You have seen my Movie Based Games page. Now see this page. Here's alist of Video Game based movies I have seen (or at least bits & parts of some thereof). Super Mario Bros. Made By:''' Hollywood Pictures '''Release Date: '''July 1993 '''Stars: Actor/ Actress (Character) Bob Hoskins (Mario, Mario) John Leguizamo (Luigi, Mario) Dennis Hopper (President Koopa) Samantha Mathis (Princess Daisy) Movie Plot Around 65 Million years ago, the Dinosaur killing asteroid has in fact opened up a doorway into another world that's the complete opposite of Earth. In the present, a brother team of plumbers from Brooklyn named the "Mario Bros." are facing competition from a better pluming company called "Scapelli". One day, they met Daisy who is a princess of her world, "Dinohattan". As Mario and Luigi stumble onto her world, they see a world turned upside down in comparison to Earth. This world consists of the dinosaurs who as well evolved into human-like creatures and run by the oppressive President Koopa. Koopa is looking for a small fragment of the asteroid which hit the Earth and opened up the doorway to this world. His goal is to merge earth with his won world and take over both worlds. The Mario Bros. must stop Koopa and rescue Daisy. Johnny's View As being a lifetime Super Mario Bros. fan, I had to see this movie. Unfortunately, I didn't see it in the theatres, I had to wait until it came out for VHS (the home recording medium at the time). Thugh, when I saw it, I thought at first was quite good. But, now I see why a lot of other fans of the games shunned this movie. Here's a list of mistakes. * 1. Luigi lacks a mustache. * 2. The Mushroom Kingdom is replaced by Dinohattan (though Koopa mentions the Mushroom kingdom in the movie) * 3. The yucky, yellow stuff (which in the movie is called fungus). * 4. Bowser Koopa is the President, he's supposed to be the "King". * 5. Yoshi isn't quite cuddly (contrary to what was mentioned about him during production of the movie), though a nice Dinosaur but he's anamotronic, not computer anaimated like the Dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. * 6. The Police are the bad guys. * 7. The Goombas look like dumb versions of frogs, not reptiles. * 8. Daisy (Samantha Mathis) had her very own wardrobe malfunction. Though, what they did get right in this movie is Mario & Luigi's origins (for the time) and their uncanny knack for Italian food. But all-n-all, this movie was more of a "stoner" version of Jurassic Park (the movie which this movie tried to compete, but lost). In conclusion, *DON'T* trust the fungus. Johnny's recommendations for a future Super Mario Bros. movie Now, Mario's first trip to the silver screen was less than impressive (despite the movie's selling out as well). But everybody's favorite plumber does deserve another chance in the film industry. My personal recommendations is that they make it computer animated, feature as many voices fromt he games (Charles Martinet in particular), and keep it true to the game, and not make it another version of a movie it wants to compete against. Street Fighter Made By: '''Universal pictures '''Release Date: '''Summer 1994 '''Stars: Jean Claude Van Damme (Col. William F. Guile) Byron Mann (Ryu Hoshi) Damian Chappa (Ken Masters) Kylie Minogue (Cammy White) Ming-Na (Chun-Li Xiang) Raul Julia (M.Bison) Movie Plot A sinister criminal organization known as "Shadaloo" has taken over Thailand and is now holding hostages from a Global Special Forces unit known as "Allied Nations". It's Colonal named Guile must rescue the hostages within 72 hours or Shadaloo's leader M.Bison will kill them. Meanwhile, weapon smugglers Ken and Ryu infiltrate shadaloo and try to destroy it from the inside. Johnny's review I've only seen bits and parts of this movie, and from those bits and parts of this movie I've learned that this movie was a complete and utter mess. Plus, Jean-Claude Van Damme is the only actual martial artist in this movie and Guile was virtually untouched by the butchering by the film-makers. But the rest of the fighters featured...well here's a list. * 1. Ryu was given a surname (which Capcom didn't offically confirm), plus he spoke english (as Byron Mann can speak this language) but Ryu speaks Japanese (no offense to Byron Mann or even Kyle Hebert) and his partner Ken Masters were weapon smugglers, they're supposed to be fighters who were trained in "Ansatsuken" (though, this wasn't mentioned at the time of this movie, neither was their true master: Gouken. The pseudo master Sheng Long was used which was for a while assumed to be Ryu and Ken's master). * 2. Charlie (Guile's friend and partner) was featued in this movie, which isn't a bad thing but what was bad about it is that he was caught by Bison and transformed into Blanka. Capcom has battled this and proved that Charlie and Blanka are 2 different characters. * 3. Cammy was seen as (somewhat) a love interest for Guile. In the game, Guile was already married to Julia (sister to Ken's wife, Eliza) who he has a daughter Amy. The actress to played Cammy (Kylie Minogue) is Australian, Cammy is (assumed to be) British. * 4. Chun-Li in this movie was a news reporter. In the game, she's an agent of Interpol. Plus, the actress who played her (Ming-Na) was (at the time) in her mid to late 30's, Chun-Li is supposed to be in her 20's somehwere. Plus, the Chinese dress she wears is a little...revealing. * 5. Zangief and Balrog in this movie switched sides. Zangief in the movie was a part of Shadaloo (this may be due to the fact that he's Russian and the Americans at the time still undermined the Russians), and Balrog is still a boxer but is a good guy (in the game Balrog is very greedy). However, the movie did make some good references to the arcade game and Capcom itself. But it wasn't enough to compensate for the lackluster fight secenes or the story attached to this movie. I also have to ask this question. Who is Sawada? Because he's not in the games either before or since this piece of garbage movie. The worst part, is that this (clears throat) *aardvark* had a TV Show based off of it, and a video game featuring the actors and actresses in the movie (which is a blatant ripoff to Mortal Kombat). Johnny's recommendations for a Future Street Fighter Movie Now, I'm pretty sure that we're not going to see another Street Fighter movie for quite some time. Because (and ironically) the recent Street Fighter movie (Street fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li which featured Smallville's Kristen Kreuk as the Chinese, Ox-Horned, hard kicin' femme fatale) did far worse than this movie featured. My recommendations for a furute Street Fighter movie is this and foremost. Make Ryu and Ken the stars as they are the stars (Not Guile or Chun-Li, no offense to either of those characters), plus, if this movie is going to be live action, cast actors and actresses that have a martial arts background, like the next video game based movie on this page. Mortal Kombat Made By: '''New Line Cinema '''Release Date: '''Summer 1995 '''Stars: Robin Shou (Liu Kang) Christopher Lambert (Raiden) Linden Ashby (Johnny Cage) Birgette Wilson (Sonya Blade) Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Shang Tsung) Talisa Soto (Kitana) Movie Plot Malevolent creatures from the desolate realm of Outworld are now looking toward Earthrealm to conquer it. However they must win a violent martial arts tournament called "Mortal Kombat" in order to achieve their ultimate goal. Meanwhile a Shaolin monk named Liu Kang seeks revenge on the outworld Scorcerer named Shang Tsung, who's responisble for the death of Liu Kang's brother, Chan. Now, Liu Kang must fight alongside Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade and Outworld's princess named Kitana in order to win Mortal Kombat. Johnny's View Now, I wasn't allowed to see this movie when it was out in the theatre. But I did see it when it came our for VHS. I have to say that this is where the idea of turning video games into movies got it's *only* break. This is the video game based movie that got things right. Not only were the characters were virtually left alone (only some minor changes). But what I liked about this movie is that it has some of the best fight scenes in a martial arts movie in the post-Bruce Lee era and a martial arts movie not starring either Jackie Chan or Jet Li. This movie also featured some of the more famous Fatalities from the game as well as some of the special moves. In fact so good is this movie, the only bad thing about it is that it didn't receive the credit it deserved. Yes, most video game based movies are bad (some of them aren't even worth anybody's time or money) but Mortal Kombat: The Movie is the clear exception. But, this movie got the boot while other *so called* martial arts movies that feature the lame Wire-Fu effects (E.G. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Matrix) get Acadamy awards. Jerkweeds. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation Made By: '''New Line Cinema '''Release Date: '''Summer 1997 '''Stars: Robin Shou (Liu Kang) Talisa Soto (Kitana) Sandra Hess (Sonya Blade) James Remar (Raiden) Lynn "Red" Williams (Jax) Musetta Vander (Sindel) Brian Thompson (Shao kahn) Movie Plot Contnuing from the first movie. The warriors of Earthrealm along with Princess Kitana that survived the Mortal Kombat tournament now must fight for Earthrealm again from Shao Kahn himself and his army of Extermination Squads. With Sindel the key to stopping Khn himself, Raiden, Liu Kang, Sonya, Jax and Kitana must find Sindel in order to stop Kahn from merging Earthrealm with Outworld. Johnny's view Of course, they left the first movie with a contnuing ending. So, I guess they had to make a sequal. Though again it stayed true to the game (only a few minor changes). But sadly, most of the elements that made the movie great were missing in the sequal. Christopher Lambert was good as Raiden but he was replaced by the Aliens reject James Remar, and Bridgette Wilson was replaced by somebody I haven't heard before or since. The fight scenes in this movie though good were more dependant on that lame Wire-Fu garbage. Plus, Kitana had to be like Princess Peach and Zelda and had to be rescued. To top it all off, Raiden had announced that Shao Kahn is his brother? Excuse me? Shao Kahn is your what, Raiden? Well, the good thing is that Raiden and Shao Kahn being related didn't transition itself onto the games (domo arigato). Mortal Kombat: Annihilation *does* have its bad moments, but it is still nevertheless watchable (like Major League 2) and it did served it's purpose. Johnny's recommendations for a future Mortal Kombat movie Now, the first movie was great. But the same story can't be safely said about the sequal. However, my personal recommendations ina future Mortal Kombat movie is to not only cast actors and actresses that have a martial arts background. But feature fight scenes that are worthy of a Bruce Lee movie and not mimicing The Matrix (which isn't really a martial arts movie in my opinion) and (as always) stay true to the story of the game and only make minor changes for the sake of the narrative. Doom 'Made By: '''Universal Pictures '''Release Date: '''Summer 2006 '''Stars: ' Karl Urban (John Grimm "Reaper") Dwayne Johnson (Alias: The Rock) (Sarge) Rosamund Pike (Samantha Grimm) Movie Plot In the near future, Humans have found a special teleportation device named "The Arch" which was a free passageway to the Planet Mars. With this teleportation device, Humans were able to colonize on Mars. Then, the colony was under attack by mutated humans that turned into zombies. Now a group of Marines have to investigate the destroyed colony and eliminate the monsters that inhabit the colony. Johnny's View Now, I have heard of this video game based movie. I was even talking about it to some other people and even *I* was hoping that it wouldn't suffer on what happened to other video game based movies in the past. Eventhough I haven't seen this movie in the theatres, it wasn't until the movie was on TV that I've seen it, and when I did my face, my brain and my heart sank like stones in a lake all at the same time. This movie was more of a modern version of Aliens (great movie by the way). Contrary to popular thought, the monsters you face in the game are not, I repeat are *not* aliens, they're supposed to be biblical monsters from the underworld (though the underworld was referenced a few times in this movie). Plus former WWE wrestler (Dwayne Johnson) was evil as he fights Zeal actor Karl Urban, though he pulled off some wrestling moves (which were cool by the way) but it isn't enough to compensate on how bad this movie really is. Johnny's recommendations for a future Doom movie Well, I can understand a big cast in this movie (as in the game there's only one human). But, as I keep saying in this page. STAY...TRUE...TO...THE...GAME. Please, don't mimic another movie's success. It happened before with not only video game based movies (but movies that were based off of TV shows and other forms of media). Other recommendations Now, these movies on this page are the movies *I* have seen. I haven't seen Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (and I don't intend to watch them because they star Angelina Jolie who's the voloptuous treasure hunter and I hold a disdain for the preceeding actress) or Pokemon (there are several movies about, but more of a continuation of the anime, can't safely call it a video game based movie) or Resident Evil (which now don't focus on the game itself, but more on the actresses who play in that movie). However, I *do* have some more video games that should be turn into movies. Megaman Now, the Blue Bomber maybe considered "Dead On Arrival" now. But, I think that Megaman still got a little lead left in his pencil. He has a long line of video games in his credential, and he is long overdue for a movie. My personal recommendations is to (as always) stay true to the game. Have Megaman be what he's like in the video games ( a servant robot before he turns into a warrior robot). Do not use the recent Megaman games (which are bad) and do not copy another movie's success (this time I'm talking about Robocop, which TV show based movie Inspector Gadget tried to do). Have Megaman use the weapons of the robot masters as well and feature as many of the famous enemy robots as well (E.G. Metool) Castlevania Now, I have only one good reason why there should be a movie based on Castlevania. TWI...LIGHT. It seems like people nowadays are into vampires. So, why not feature a movie where vampires are the bad pe...um I mean, beings. Of course, unlike many other movies that feature bad vampires, (E.G. Bram Stoker's Dracula, Dracula 2000), The Belmont family should use their weapon of choice. You guessed it, The Vampire Killer. More effective than a wooden stake and Garlic. My other recommendation for a Castlevania movie is (again) not copy the success of other vampire movies (or any other monster movie for that matter). The Belmonts should also use the secondary weapons in the game (E.G. The Dagger, The Axe, Holy Water). Ninja Gaiden Ah, yes. My good VG buddy, Ryu Hayabusa. Now, as being a Japan expert (unofficially) I also like the Ninja. Plus, with those annoying Pirates of The Carribean movies out there. It's time to perpetuate the ongoing debate on which is better:The Pirate or the Ninja? With a history going back to the days of the NES, Ninja Gaiden deserves to be on the silver screen. Yes, I know as well Ryu has appeared on the silver screen before...in the forgettable Dead or Alive movie. Why not give him another shot at it in the game is more famous for? Of course, it would be somebody who has a martial arts background (I'm thinking of that asian guy from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) and be true to the classical NES games (which were difficult, but memorable). I also think that Ryu should also use the weapons featured in the new games as well as his famous powers (E.G. throwing giant shuriken, creating waves of fire with his dragon sword). Also have the movie take place in Japan as well (with both Tokyo and an old Japanese town where Ryu has come from).